Early Hellblazer

I have just reread Hellblazer no 4 by Jamie Delano, a gem of a comic in several ways. It was early days for John Constantine in his own title, fresh from the hands of his creator, Alan Moore, who had introduced him as a major player in Swamp Thing.

John is on the top of his form. We see excellent scenes of a Motorway, London and Liverpool (two Cities on Earth Real but a City and a Metropolitan Borough on Earth DC). We meet John's niece, Gemma, and John meets a new girl friend, Zed. The Resurrection Crusade and the Damnation Army are introduced. Many later story lines are being prepared.

The story expresses childhood alienation from parents, especially parents who join an outfit like the Resurrection Crusade. Within this context, there is a ghost story that becomes a horror story. The Crusade has a vigilante wing, the Warriors of God, whose T shirt shows a long sword pointing downwards. That reminded me of the Kryptonian Sword of Rao cult who carry flaming swords in Alan Moore's "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?" - Liverpool and Kryptonopolis being two diverse regions of the vast DC Universe.